Letters, Dec. 5, 1938

Symptoms

Sirs:

IS IT TRUE LARGE NUMBERS OF GERMANS ARE SHOWING SYMPTOMS OF REVERTING TO CANNIBALISM ?

JORGEN MARTINSEN

Sitka, Alaska

Sirs:

I WONDER WHAT THE BOYS IN BERLIN WOULD HAVE SAID, IF AFTER THE CONVICTION OF BRUNO HAUPTMANN, OUR GOVERNMENT HAD TURNED ON THE HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT GERMANS IN THIS COUNTRY, ROBBED THEM, BURNED THEIR CHURCHES AND THEN FINED THEM $400,000,000?

GEORGE BANNER Hollywood, Calif.

Sirs:

May I suggest a method by which the American people may express their opinion of the present German Government? Why should not committees be formed in towns to make house-to-house collections of objects made in Germany, which might be destroyed in public bonfires? Almost every house contains some broken toy or picture-book, of no great value to the owner, that would serve as a symbol for this purpose. The collections could be made in a few afternoons, at small expense; and the language of bonfires seems to be the only one that Germans at present understand. If these mass-demonstrations were on a scale sufficiently large, they would suggest that democracy has something to say. The question of an embargo would soon take care of itself if the phrase “Made in Germany” became a general synonym for all that is contemptible and base.

There are millions of good Germans, as everyone knows, and no one, certainly, wishes to hurt their feelings. But some of the best Germans share one trait of the worst—they only accept the word of Germans. The rest of the human race for them consists of four or five billion Jews, who cannot be expected to do justice to Germans. Only through the pressure of Germans will Germany be changed. This fact may teach a hard lesson, but it is one that will have to be learned. When Germans universally find that the universe detests their masters, and that precisely these masters—no one else—have made life unbearable for them, then we may look for a change, and not before. Let the fair play of Americans be trusted to see that the odium falls only upon Germans in high places.

VAN WYCK BROOKS

Westport, Conn.

Pro-Saroyan

Sirs:

I need a small amount of your space in which to reply to TIME’S review of my collection of short stories entitled The Trouble With Tigers [TIME, Nov. 14].

I am a writer, not a playboy, Communist, world-saver, dilettante, or U. S. prophet. Writing is my work. I take pride in this work, and when it is good I am as pleased to say so as TIME, for instance, is pleased in its advertisements to say it is the best magazine of its kind in America. . . .

Your reviewer, whoever he is, is apparently clinging to a theory which is no longer valid for our country. Modesty, in our day, almost invariably accompanies mediocrity, and is usually an inside out variety of immodesty.

If my work does not deserve to be taken seriously, I think it would be interesting to your readers (and especially interesting to me) if TIME would name six American writers of fiction whose work does deserve to be taken seriously.

I would be the last person in the world to shout foul-play because TIME appears to be anti-Saroyan. That is a privilege I am delighted to insist on your right to keep. I, in turn, on the other hand, insist that I myself, at least, am privileged to be pro-Saroyan. One of us is certainly partly mistaken. If it is myself, time, the element or thing which goes by every day, and not the magazine, will put me in my place. WILLIAM SAROYAN

San Francisco, Calif.

>Hemingway, Faulkner, Dos Passes, Dreiser, Willa Cather, Elizabeth Madox Roberts.—ED.

Election Returns

Sirs:

Nothing on national election in Nov. 14 issue, contrary to your practice in previous election years.

How come?

R. B. WILLIAMS Lake Forest, Ill.

Sirs:

. . . TIME following the 1936 elections contained a tabulation of returns, TIME following the 1938 elections saw them solely in prospect.

What is the answer?

T. WILLARD HUNTER Cambridge, Mass.

>In former years TIME included the election returns by going to press—and coming out—a day late. This year, because Election Day was unusually late (Nov. 8), had TIME delayed a day the Armistice Holiday would have prevented any subscriber from receiving his copy until Saturday at the earliest. Rather than deliver the rest of its news several days late, TIME decided to let the election returns wait.—ED.

Grotto Hall Sirs:

ASK A RETRACTION OF THE STATEMENT MADE IN TIME (NOV. 21, P. 15) IN REFERENCE TO PITTSBURGH’S “DILAPIDATED GROTTO HALL.” THIS BUILDING WAS ERECTED IN 1932. YOUR STATEMENT IS TRULY UNFOUNDED.

HARRY A. YERN

Monarch Grotto Hall Pittsburgh, Pa.

>TIME erred, apologizes to Grotto Hall whose gilt is fresh, and decor modern.—ED.

Job Wanted

Sirs:

… I am a married man, 28 years old; graduated from high school with honors; have two years’ college training in Agricultural Engineering; experienced in dry-land farming; know soils, crops and livestock feeding; understand economics; can handle all power farming machinery including Diesel engines. Have had drouth-damaged crops since 1932 but this year (1938), of both short crops and low prices, will probably be the last straw. Would prefer work ten hours a day and six days a week in private industry rather than the “abundant life” of an easy WPA job with its sense of futility and frustration. . . .

CARL T. MIDDENDORF Bruning, Neb.

>The flood of letters received since TIME announced its intention of printing one a week from someone who wanted a job would give any reader a liberal education on the unemployment situation among educated people. It has also demonstrated that printing one “free advertisement” a week is unsatisfactory because it gives no impression of the volume of job seekers, and no representative letter can be chosen from such heterogeneous applications—from men and women; from youngsters, young marrieds, middle aged, and oldsters; from chemists, farmers, accountants, writers, executives, secretaries; from people who have had no jobs for years and people with stopgap jobs that are not jobs at all. Since the applications as a group are more impressive than any single one, TIME will wind up its experiment in a forthcoming issue by publishing three columns of job-wanted letters chosen primarily for their interest to readers.—ED.

Scarecrows

Sirs:

I have been told that your magazine answers questions for its readers. I am interested to learn what descent may be ascribed to the parents of Shirley Temple, “the little actress.” So many seem to disagree on this question. I thank you.

Sirs:

What is the name of the night club that Elissa Winston is in on Broadway? She won the title of Miss Empire State in the recent beauty contest.

>TIME has always made a practice of answering questions it considers newsworthy. Of late TIME has been increasingly flooded with inconsequential, idle or impertinent queries; prints the examples above as scarecrows.—ED.

Man of the Year

Sirs:

Re M. O. Y. nominations: the only possibility is Hideous Hitler. I hate his stinking guts, but 1938 was his—if there be any argument, let it come from Sucker Chamberlain.

F. J. BABCOCK Jacksonville, Fla.

Sirs:

How about Chamberlain for the Man of the Year ? Singlehanded he has reduced Great Britain from a first-class to a third-class power. KENNETH BROWN

Chicago, Ill.

Sirs:

I nominate Adolf Hitler. May God have mercy on his soul.

EDMUND P. SHAW Rutland, Vt.

Sirs:

For Man of the Year: the Wandering Jew, who must begin wandering again. . . .

ETHEL ROTH Brooklyn, N. Y.

Sirs:

For 1938-5 Man of the Year I nominate Adolf Hitler. My reason for nominating:

Two of your Year’s men—the Chinese Generalissimo and the Emperor of Ethiopia—got the living bejesus beat out of ’em. Maybe the same jinx would catch Hitler. CHARLES B. WILLIAMS Rome, Ga.